When you oversee employees on any level, you know the responsibility you have.

Whether a handful of workers or hundreds, your goal is to get the most out of those you are in charge of.

That said it can be a challenge at times when it appears some are not giving you their full efforts. For one reason or another, they do not put out 100 percent each day. In turn, you are then left with having to figure out how to get the max effort from them on a regular basis.

Although you may come to the conclusion that some employees are not a good fit, there are others you will work with. In working with them, you will look to see how you can challenge them to be better. You also will work to remove any distractions that can be impeding their work.

So, are you prepared to review your employees’ work and make sure they give 100 percent?

What Might Be Distracting Some of Your Team?

In looking at your situation, what are some distractions confronting some your employees?

Among some common ones:

1. Social media

If you allow your employees’ Internet access, there’s a chance some will be a little bit too friendly with the web. As such, they may not be able to focus on their jobs.

Examples of this would include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and others. So that social networking does not become too big of a distraction, set rules from one’s first day of employment.

For some companies, they allow their employees free reign when it comes to social media. Others, meantime, encourage workers to use their breaks to get updated on social media. Others block sites, leaving employees not able to access them at work.

Although you might be thinking social ban, employees can use cell phones to access sites. Since you won’t confiscate phones, rely on the individual being self-disciplined.

2. Personal issues

What employee doesn’t have a personal issue or two to deal with?

While some are more pressing, do your best to encourage your team to leave personal stuff at the front door.

If someone needs some time during the day to deal with a personal matter, give them a little space to do so. It is better to get it out of the way than to have it lingering over them. With the latter, it can impact their ability to get their job done.

Among issues can be sick family members, marital and financial woes, and run-ins with the law.

If one has concerns with collection agencies, remind them agencies are not to call work. In the event that appears to be happening, they can do a reverse phone number search. That search allows them to track down where any calls are emanating from.

While you can’t and shouldn’t babysit workers, you also don’t want them bringing personal issues to work all the time.

3. Fellow coworkers

Last, are there some individuals in the workplace who try their best to distract others? If so, it is important that this not become an on-going problem.

While office chatter is commonplace, it should not become a major distraction.

Let your team know in no uncertain terms what is and isn’t expected of them. By doing the right training from day one, most of them should get the picture about what to expect in your business.

Finding that happy medium in an office can be difficult. That said everyone needs to remember why they are there in the first place.

So, how productive would you say your business is?

Some of our top business, political and social leaders have sports backgrounds or played sports extensively when they were young. They credit that time with providing them with skills that propelled them toward success in their chosen fields. The benefits from paying sports are numerous and substantial and give ample reason why you should put your child in sports. If you are a professional athlete like Jack Elway and you have a son like American football icon John Elway, it is obvious what sports can provide. Here are a list of the benefits.

Teaches Teamwork

One key to life is understanding how to function on a team. Teamwork is important in everything from work. To friendships to relationships that end in marriage. Sports and particularly team sports get kids to think about their actions and how they must be coordinated with others in order to be effective. They also learn that their actions affect others whether it is intended or not. They learn to focus on being a productive and positive team member and pulling for team rather than individual goals. In most cases in life and on sports there are some athletes who are more naturally gifted but having great teamwork skills can level the playing field shuffling who is vital and who is not. These lessons stick with kids and are useable throughout their lives.

Develops Social Skills

Many kids who were once shy became social and popular because of sports. Sports force you to be out front and to communicate in order to get the things you need to perform well and with an energetic coach in your face and forcing you to communicate, shyness will usually get pushed aside.  Kids learn that it is ok to express themselves in a group setting and they often develop bonds on sports team that they carry with them for a lifetime.

Improves concentration

Kids today have so many things to distract them and too often kids are encouraged to engage in things like video games and cell phone text messaging because it gives parents a breaks from them and occupies the kid’s time. But the real downside to this strategy is that kids become unable to concentrate for long periods of time which works against them in school and when they get into the world and have to find employment. Sports require a high level of concentration and multiple layers of focus on the game, your team, the other team and the rules of the game. It teaches young people how to use that focus for an outcome and how to stay concentrating through all sorts of emotions and physical conditions.

Teaches Good Sportsmanship

Sports is about learning to win and lose and benefitting in both cases. Sports teaches you that you can be great today and lose tomorrow so you had better prepare a speech for each occasion. For kids who have never had the chance to compete before, sports gives them the opportunity to deal with the emotional aspects of competing. Can you win and be gracious? Can you lose and bounce back? These are issues kids will have to deal with their entire lives and sports prepares them.

Business today is more competitive than ever and companies are finding the need to keep their workers as well trained as possible in order to compete and win against the competition. Over the past decade, money for things like training has been scarce even though there have been fundamental business changes, the likes that have not been seen for decades. So what have changed in the corporate world that is now making corporate training so popular? And what is making business consultants like Haris Ahmed Chicago based founder and CEO of Pragmatium Consulting, Inc. so in demand. Here are some of the reasons.

Increased need for efficiency

Around the world, businesses are feeling pressed to become more efficient. The Internet has allowed companies to go global fast and so your competitors are no longer in your community or city, they exist in every city in the world. This new business reality has pushed businesses to look at how they operate and how their employees function within their organizations and many companies are realizing they need new levels of efficiency from their employees in order to compete.

With employees already working longer hours and having increased stress, this efficiency can only come from their learning skills they do not already possess. Some are technology skills and others are business operation skills that combine to push productivity to new levels and have workers accomplishing more, sometimes while working less. More established businesses are seeing that in many new companies, the training in these new technologies and skillsets is paying off as small companies are able to compete with much larger ones. So, many are now embracing corporate training.

Much More Affordable

Corporate training has traditionally been very expensive, with the costs forcing organizations to decide between doing it, or spending that money on something that they are sure would bring tangible results. Today however corporate training has become much more affordable because of the introduction of corporate training online programs. These programs do not require having employees take long hours away from work at the employer’s expense and paying high per employee fees for the training. This type of training can be done at home, on weekends and even while the employee is commuting and at a fraction of the cost of typical corporate training. There can also be live online training classes where employees can interact with trainers and additional assistance and questions answered. These programs typically come with a package price that is designed to fit the organization and its budget parameters.

Easier to Monitor and Track Results

Corporate training used to be difficult and complicated to monitor and its results were sometimes hard to measure. Today the effects of corporate training is monitored closely using a variety of approaches that look at a range of criteria. Results are also measured based on what a company might want to see as areas for improvement. Organizations are given up to the second assessments of what is happening and what improvements are being made. This refining of the monitoring and results process has made corporate training an effort that can be supported more easily throughout the entire organization.

Corporate training is one of the fastest growing business sectors and for good reasons. Companies need to make sure their employees are prepared to go to battle against any size competitor.